Governments

Selfishness in Adam Smith style, though. They met a demand for workforce.

By the way there's German "Gastarbeiter" and Dutch "gastarbeiders" but no "gastearbeidern" that I'm aware of, or is that Danish?

 

I had a vague idea that it might look like Dutch.... The correct Danish would be : gaestearbejderne.

Yes, pure Adam Smith, without a slightest thought of future social consequencies.

In fact, these people are often unhappy. They would by far prefer to live in own countries; they resent the more or less hidden racism, they hate seeing their children mobbed, or opposite - getting "like the Danes/Germans etc..." .
They have no way back, though. They´ve lost the necessary tricks of survival in their own lands.
They want to show those back home that they are successful, even if they only get social help and get gradually more frustrated and passive.

I really don´t know who really suffers more from the Smithian experiment....

Is there anybody here who can give some optimistic way out of this problem?

 

The only real solution is integration into the community of wherever they live.

It is interesting though. In the 1950s Britain had a wave of black immigrants, mostly from the Caribbean/Bahamas. Yes, there has been the occaisional upsurge of rasicm (I never really got how people can be that thick :-? ) , but by & large these immigrants (who did usually end up in the lower-paid & menial jobs) slotted into British society fairly well. Most still speak of Jamaica / Trinidad / wherever as 'home', but they are, essentially, British. Interestingly, those who do go home sometimes find they are spurned as 'British'...

So why, if it worked for them, does it not work so well for Pakistanis / Bangladeshis / etc?
Is it because they tend to ghettoise? (In Luton we have Bury Park)
Or are we still in the initial 'settling in' phase?

 

For one thing - the Carrabean Gents were English (sort of) speaking form day 1. Plus some colonial memories...
The other thing is, that the present wave is very voluminous, giving almost instant (and natural) ghettoization. To this, add the universal distrust the Muslims have of all things western or Jewish-inspired.

Besides - the Carabbean wave came here to work. the peoples´of the present wave know the conditions (mass unemployment) and count on social serices from the start, at least many of them.

 

Same for Pakistani / Bangladeshi...

But I agree (by & large) with your other points.

 

Yes, right.... but you have Islam here, while the Caribbeans were Christian, right?

 

That is an important difference.